Blink
by sunashiii
Summary: If Ichigo could say thank you to only one person, that would be Sakura Urahara. The girl, no woman that had saved him from death one too many times and more so. He just wished he was able to do the same for her... This is the story of how she helped the hero save all those he loved, including herself.
1. Chapter 1

_**Blink**_

She had woken up from yet another dream of nothing but pitch black and one single beam of light that was too far for her to reach, yet it was so close. She ran and she called out to it, but nothing happened. It didn't stop and it would listen to her cries. She let out a sigh before she pulled the blanket over her head.

Sakura Urahara was her name. Long pink hair, sharp emerald eyes that looked to pierce into the souls of just about anything. A height of 5'4, an athletic build with curves to her body, but not so over the top for her simple appearance of a 18-20 year old girl.

She didn't have many friends, besides a boy from many years ago that she couldn't even remember. But she did remember his hair. As orange and bright as the sun.

A smile formed on her face as she thought of him, he was her first human friend and she always cherished him. But something had happened and he just left. He never came back to the park after that rainy day, not that she could blame him; everyone left sooner or later.

"Sakura. Oh Sakura~"

She sighed as she got up from her futon and opened the sliding door to reveal the face of the perverted Urahara, "What do you want, old man?"

"I need you to run some errands for me. Get some food and all that." Urahara grinned at her.

"But it's only Thursday, we aren't out of food yet.." Sakura told him, but he was already making his way back downstairs.

"Hurry up and get dressed. Be down here in 5 minutes, Sak!" He called out to her.

"Fine.." She sighed out as she closed the sliding door and made her way to her closet to change into proper clothing. Slipping on a loose grey hoodie and shorts along with her white trainers, and pulling her hair into a messy bun. She quickly made her way downstairs and saw Jinta and Ururu playing out in front of the store and Urahara sitting in his usual spot.

"Here's the list of things I need, and here's the money. Be back as soon as you can, try to make it back before dark okay."

Sakura nodded at his double meaning sentence, "Alright, I'll be back before then."

She waved goodbye to him as well and Jinta and Ururu and Tessai. Turning the corner to leave the shop she nearly bumped into another girl. She had black hair and was by far much shorter than Sakura, "Sorry, about that."

The girl bowed before she quickly walked pass by her, "Yeah no problem."

* * *

"What the actual hell is this list? None of this stuff can be found at some random store, Urahara!" Sakura grumbled out as she read the list, so far she had only been able to find one thing on the list, and it had already been almost an hour!

She kept grumbling, making people turn heads at her.

"Look at her hair!"

"Crazy, she's talking to herself."

Sakura ignored all of them as she went about her own business, she was already used to all their talking of her hair color and things like that. She didn't care for their words of judgement. She held her head high, and walked with pride and purpose right past the people that talked and mocked her.

She didn't make it far from the ones who had talked about her before she froze and dropped whatever was in her hands, "Wha-what the hell?!"

She looked up and down at the sky and the streets, right and left at the people who yet again stopped to give her crazy looks. She didn't care though as she broke into a sprint, leaving her things behind her.

'That screeching! Why the hell are there so many of them?!' Sakura thought as she ran.

She didn't stop until she felt something even stronger. She slowly looked above her and saw a crack in the sky that was oozing out black, "Who the hell opened a gate?!"

She watched as it crack in the sky become larger; watching as the sky now swirled black where the crack was. Her eyes widen even more when she saw Hollows drop out from it. She was about to sprint back to the shop but froze yet again when she felt it.

She felt something breath down her neck, 'Fuck, I'm gonna have to fight. Sorry Urahara, but it's my life or the hollows.'

She turned around and saw the Hollow. Black, huge and looked ready to kill her and just about anything with a spiritual presence. She quickly sensed if anyone was around her before she changed into a soul reaper.

Her body went limp and her soul slipped out of the now soulless body. Her hair flowed down to her waist, her body now clothes in black. A black kimono with a halter strap that tied behind her neck in a bow, her kimono had slits on both side with black short shorts underneath. She had no shoes but black ribbons instead. Tied around her waist was a red obi and strapped in between was a katana. Strapped around her right thigh was white warping.

Long and curved ever so slightly. Covered by a black sheath with a red tassel hanging off the hilt with a jade bead.

She quickly somersaulted away from the hollow and landed smoothly into a crouching form. She then slipped her katana out of the sheath to reveal stainless steel that gleamed in the sun's light, "It's been awhile since I've seen one of those ugly white mask so close up."

"A soul reaper? How far they've fallen to allow a child like you to be one." The low growl of the Hollow mused out loud. It was large black and looked like a mutated dog with a white mask covering the upper half of it's face and leaving the bottom jaw opened to see.

Sakura said nothing to amuse his thoughts, she had to purify this one quickly and go on to the next ones. She felt 2, 5, no 6 more all around the town, "Sorry, but you're in my way!"

With one swing of her sword she quickly took the Hollow out, "Shit, there's even more coming out!"

She looked above her and took a step back, they just kept coming out, "What the hell is happening around here.."

* * *

She had taken down 4 Hollow's all back to back, non stop. She heaved out a much needed breathe as she fell on her butt and just laid there, "I'm done fighting for the rest of the year."

She looked over to her human body that she had placed away from the fight, "I should move it elsewhere. It's not over yet." She looked up at the sky that now had multiple black holes in it.

Quickly picking her body up, she jumped from roof to roof looking for a safe place to put it. It was until yet another Hollow jumped in front of her did she stop. She cursed her luck as she had to place her body down and fight the new hollow.

"I swear on Urahara's life that when I find out who let all these Hollows in, I will kill them."

It took more effort than the others to kill this Hollow, but none the less she took it out along with the others that showed up. It would soon take a toll on her body and she knew it, "Get out of my way!"

Quickly picking up her body again, she made a straight shot to the shop.

* * *

"Uh? Hey, Sakura? What are you doing in your soul reaper form?" Jinta asked her as he pulled away from bullying Ururu.

"Jinta, Ururu! Take my body and place it inside. Get your weapons ready if you need to fight. Urahara should already know, as well as Tessai about what's happening. But I need you two to be prepared as well. Hollows are coming out of the sky, and they're coming fast!" Sakura ordered them as yet another Hollow showed up.

"R-right!" They took her body without much question and placed it inside the shop.

"Shit, I need to lead them somewhere else. I need to keep Jinta and Ururu safe." Without much thought she sliced another one down and ran somewhere else, not really caring just as long as it was away from the shop.

"Urahara!" Jinta and Ururu yelled out into the shop, "It's Sakura!"

The man immediately slide the door open with more force than needed and was faced with the worried looks of Jinta and Ururu, "What happened?"

"She changed into her soul reaper form and told us to take her body inside. Somethings happening outside, there are Hollows falling from the sky!" Jinta informed the shop owner, who gave a sigh.

Urahara took the young woman's body and placed her inside the living room where Orihime and Chad were currently seated in. They looked at the man with shook written all over their faces, "Is-is she..?"

"No, she's just like Ichigo. She's a soul reaper like him and is currently fighting for everyone's lives right now. We need to hurry right now and help her and Ichigo out."

The two nodded at the man's words and stood up to follow him.

"Jinta, Ururu, get ready. We're going out." The two followed his order with no question and began to get their weapons ready.

* * *

"What's with this?" Sakura looked up as she saw the hole come together form into a even bigger one. The black swirl was becoming larger as well as the number of Hollows. With a quick decision, she made her way over to where the black hole was located above.

Along the way she slayed countless numbers of Hollows, "This is taking too long. I need to kill them fast and quick! Rise and Destroy, Sora no Kogo!"

Her once simple katana was now completely white, the red tassel and jade bead was the only color on the white sword. With a single swing of her sword, a white slash followed the slice, cutting down every Hollow effortlessly.

As she flashed step towards the black hole in the sky, she stopped in her place as she saw a huge gathering in a clearing in the forest. In the middle of the group of Hollows were two boys. One in black clothing, obviously a soul reaper and the other had a school uniform on with a blue bow made of light in his hand, a quincy, "What's a quincy doing fighting with a soul reaper?"

She didn't have time to muse her thoughts before she saw that the sky was ripping even more, "No. Way."

A menos grande, a freaking menos grande was breaking its way into the human world!

Her attention was moved from the menos grande, down to the ground where she saw Ururu shooting at the Hollows below. The smoke cleared to reveal Urahara, Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu, She couldn't help but let a smile bloom on her face as she saw their flashy entrance.

"Always gotta make sure you're the center of attention, huh old man?" Sakura mused as she dropped to the ground in a kneeling position.

"But of course," Urahara lightly chuckled at the young female, "Now, Ichigo why don't you let us handle these small fries and go take care of that. You should probably get started before it's too late." He pointed up towards the menos grande that was coming out the sky.

Sakura looked at the orange haired boy that didn't seem to pay much attention to her, 'That hair-' But her musing was cut short when she heard the black haired girl from earlier start to explain what a menos grande was.

"A menos grande. A gigantic Hollow borne from hundreds of Hollows mixed and folded and crushed together. But I've only seen such a thing in illustrations in schoolbooks, "Menos Grande". I don't know what we can do, only one group can handle this, the Royal Special Task Force. A menos grande is way too much for any single soul reaper.."

Sakura wanted to snort at the girl's explanation, it wasn't that she was wrong, no she hit all the important facts but a menos grande wasn't something to fret over if you were prepared. She had fought enough to know that even though they were large and had a very hard punch, they were slow and that caused them time giving their enemy time to attack, evade and kill.

"Our weapons aren't strong enough to take down that thing…" The Quincy remarked with a cold voice that was lightly laced with worried.

"Just because it's over-fit doesn't mean we can't take them, we'll just have to chop off a little more." The orange haired boy smirked as he readied his sword.

"'Chop'?" The Quincy looked at the boy in question.

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall! Together we can take that ugly sucker down! Let's go Uryu!" With a battle cry, the orange haired boy charged into battle with the Quincy, Uryu, following behind him in hesitation.

"No way! He's not serious about taking on a Menos, is he?! He'll get himself killed!" The short haired girl tried to run after him but was stopped by Urahara, "Urahara! Are you trying to get him killed out there?!"

Urahara then placed two fingers in front of her face, causing her to gasp out, "Of course not, just watch. There's a method to my madness. This is a battle that must be fought."

The girl's eyes were wide as she fell to the ground, on her knees.

"Old man, what are you thinking? You know what he is...even with a quincy's help.." Sakura appeared out of nowhere next to him, taking a glance at the shorter girl on the ground.

"Don't worry, Sak. Even if things go south, you can just clean it up no problem." Urahara then went back to flapping the the hand held fan in front of his face, "This is for Ichigo and you, Rukia."

Sakura now understood why the girl was on the floor and so quiet, she was placed on in a Binding Spell, "I sometimes forget to fear you, old man." Sakura nearly shuttered at her memories of what Urahara could really do when he got serious.

"Good reminder, isn't it, dear daughter." Urahara chuckled lowly.

Sakura said nothing as she watched the two boys charge at the menos grande, from the corner of her eye she could tell that the girl, Rukia, was looking at her form with shock. Sakura could tell what she was thinking, but she did nothing to confirm or deny the girl.

The soul reaper charged forward at the menos grande, attacking at it's feet thinking that it would actually work. He ended up getting kicked away so effortlessly.

"Ichigo! I told you that wouldn't work! That was the dumbest charge I think I've ever seen." Uryu shouted at the fallen soul reaper.

"That makes two of us." Sakura commented to herself with a 'are you fucking serious' look on her face.

"Are you okay?" Uryu asked the boy, still angry at his charge though.

"Yeah, I'm fine." And yet blood was now flowing down his face as he mock saluted to the quincy with a idiotic smile on his face.

"Are you stupid?! Did you think that would actually work?" Uryu shouted at the bleeding boy.

"...Well actually, I figured if I just kept chopping him down from the feet up, he would you know eventually fall like a tree. And then we can knock him on the head" Ichigo ended his plan with a little imaginary drawing.

"I can't believe you think this is some kid's game. Now let's think of something that will actually work." Uryu scolded him. He then kneeled down next to Ichigo, touching his sword in the process.

A shock went through the quincy boy as he felt the surge of powering following from Ichigo's sword and into his body, his bow getting larger by the surge of power, 'This must be the power from Ichigo! This is all of his power, what the hell?!'

"W-what's with the arrow?! How'd it get so big?!" Ichigo yelled out in shock as he looked at the bow and arrow with straight shock.

"Just be quiet, I think there might be a way we can actually kill that thing." Uryu firmly told the boy who kept looking at him with a crazy look.

* * *

Not too far away from where Ichigo, Uryu, Sakura and the rest, stood Orihime and Chad on a highway bridge looking towards their direction. Their wounds were all bandaged up, but they were still spiritual tired. They had still gone with Urahara, even if they had to stay far from the fight. As long as they were close to Ichigo, they were fine.

"Orihime," Chad broke the silence as he observed the menos grande walk towards Ichigo and Uryu, "Do you see that thing walking towards Ichigo and Uryu?"

"Yes," Her voice was soft and quiet, but no fear was heard in her voice, "Mr. Urahara said to watch from her so..Does he mean that we watch from here so that when the time comes, we'll be able to choose our path to walk?"

Inside of Orihime's mind was the memory of the night that her brother had turned into a Hollow, in truth she had never forgotten that night. But she wished so much to be able to. To see her brother turn into a monster like that,,,it broke her heart, "Chad, what are we supposed to do?"

Chad looked over to his female classmate, her head hung low and her voice as low too. He gave no reply but a simple 'mmm'. It wasn't him who choose her fate, she was the one to choose it herself. But he knew she would eventually figure out what she was meant to do. All in due time.

"Now. Now we are ready to fight that thing!" Uryu shouted out with pride. But his appearance held anything but that.

He was on his knees, bow pulled back and arrow in place with Ichigo's sword wrapped on top of his head. His eyes were nothing short but serious while Ichigo looked ready to kill Uryu for saying his plan was stupid when Uryu had a sword strapped onto his head.

"You're not serious are you? This plan won't work." Ichigo deadpanned the quincy. Now that he had let go of the sword, Uryu's bow had gone down in size by a lot along with the arrow.

"Just shut up and do as I say! You got to release all of your spirit energy when I say! That way I should be able to harness the power and be able to shot an enormous arrow!" Uryu shouted out.

* * *

"...Urahara, this-this is some sick shit. I feel like I'm watching some fetish porn. Replace some words and- oh my god!" Sakura shuddered at the images coming to her mind. She mentally clawed at her eyes.

"What a perverted daughter I have. How nasty of you, Sak." Urahara laughed out at the young female who was now blushing a pink hue. She glared over to him.

'They-they aren't even taking this serious! Ichigo and Uryu could die if that menos grande-' Rukia's thought were cut short when a bright red light was beamed there way, 'A cero?! Does he intend to blast doom right here?!'

Rukia screamed for them to run, but nothing came out of her mouth as she was still under the Binding Spell. She looked over at the female soul reaper and Urahara for help, but all she was meet with was blank faces and harden emerald eyes.

"Give me the word and I'll cut the menos right now. Sora is pretty giddy right now after being let out after so long." The pink haired female suggested to the green clad man who only stared straight into the cero.

"Just keep watching.."

And so Sakura did, she watched as the orange haired boy, Ichigo, grab his sword from the quincy, Uryu's, head and ran straight towards the cero. Her eyes widen and her mouth agape as she watched the cero hit him straight on yet he hadn't been blown to dust. He had used his sword to protect him, taking the hit instead of him, 'This spiritual energy! It's increasing!'

"This boy is a monster, Urahara! His spirit energy is beyond that of just any simple soul reaper. It's almost like a Lieutenant's, maybe even a Captain if he had the right training!" Sakura swallowed her shock as he was just taking the cero with just his sword, it wasn't even in it's Shikai form!

"I think it's time.." Urahara smiled as Ichigo pushed against the cero.

Sakura and just about everyone else's eyes widen as the cero was fully deflected and a blast of a warm blue breeze. The breeze of blue had come from Ichigo cutting the menos grande right in half. The look on everyone's face was pure shock minus Urahara.

The menos grande then retreated back into the crack and pulled it close almost like a curtain.

"I win!" Ichigo raised the victory sign with a grin on his face. Uryu looked at the boy with amazement and shock, "What in the world is he?"

"Well down, now I can see why the boss had his eye on him." Tessai congratulated Ichigo, having just killed the rest of the Hollows along with Ururu and Jinta.

"Well, what's the matter, Uryu?" Ichigo boosted at the boy, smugness written all over his face, "I just saved your butt, and cleaned up your mess too. It seems like you can at least say thank you-"

Before he could complete his boosting, Ichigo fell to the ground, "W-what's this? Why do I feel so drained."

All of a sudden his sword began to glow a blinding red.

"His zanpakuto is deteriorating!" Uryu stated out loud, "He released all of his spiritual energy all at once. At this point if it keeps up like this, he could..-" Uryu's train of thoughts were cut of by a quick and silent flash of pink and meshed with the blinding red.

In a matter of a blink, Sakura was now standing above Ichigo, her stark white sword was pierced into his own glowing sword, "If I can absorb all of your spirit energy and release it, you won't die today kid." Sakura's eyes harden as she could tell Sora was trying her best to absorb all of the raw spirit energy as fast as she could before the boy would die, "Why do you have so much power?"

Sakura could feel his power ripping her skin that held her sword. She was absorbing as much as possible but his power was something she wasn't prepared for. She didn't notice that it was getting easier to absorb until the quincy stepped on the sword, connecting him to Ichigo's power.

He was taking the power and shooting it out through his arrow, "If we both absorb and get it out of his body fast enough then-"

"What the hell are you two doing?!" Ichigo yelled out at the two, he could see the blood flowing down their forearms and dripping down to their elbows and fingers, hitting the pavement like a raindrop of red,

"Shut up! We're trying to save you!" Uryu yelled out as he concentrated on shooting as many arrows of his spiritual power out as he could, "I have to make sure you survive so I have someone to fight in the future! Stay alive so I can beat the hell outta of you! And you can try to do the same to me, Ichigo Kurosaki!"

Uryu just kept shooting out the remains of Ichigo's power. On the other hand, Sakura could feel her sword pulse, the power in her hand was something so foreign to her. She had never sucked to spirit energy of a soul reaper before, at least one that was this strong and in such a huge amount too.

Sakura watched as he struggled to keep up with all of the power coming out of the boy's sword, "Sorry about this but you need to leave this to me kid." And so Sakura, with good intention, shoved the boy away so she could take in the power and the aftermath herself.

"What are you doing?! You could kill yourself by taking that much spirit energy without even releasing it." Uryu shouted to the pink haired soul reaper, but all she did was smirk.

She pulled Sora out of the sword before plunging it right back in, taking all of the remain bits of spirit energy out and watched as Sora vibrated in pure power and lust for even more, "I must say kid, you got some power in you. More than I liked to admit, how scary for someone so young and only a substitute too."

Sakura grinned down at the orange haired boy who started up at her in curiosity, "Who are you?"

"No one to really care about. Try not to get yourself killed anymore kid." Sakura crouched down next to him and lightly pressed his forehead gently as she stood and began to make her way back to Urahara.

Uryu, Ichigo, and Rukia watched her walk away so simply even with her right arm bleeding from taking in all that power. Just who was she to them?

"You can take care of this mess, I'll be back home before tomorrow." Sakura whispered as into Urahara's ear as she tried to keep up her strong front, Ichigo's power was taking a toll on her body. She needed to release the power, and soon at that, 'Just what the hell was that boy? Could he be the boy from back then?'


	2. Chapter 2

_**Blink**_

Sakura was just walking around, finishing the errands from yesterday. Dressed in a nice white summer dress and white chunky heels, it felt rather nice to dress so normally after the events of yesterday. Though she did have to have her arm wrapped up with a thing cardigan hiding the injury. She had to go way out towards the country to release the amount of energy she had absorbed, even Sora had been tired. She had released it all in one slash that would forever leave a crack in the earth. It was so deep that Sakura couldn't see the bottom and so wide she would have to run for some time to get to the end and the start of the man made split in the earth.

She hadn't been able to get home til nearing 2 in the morning with Urahara waiting for her with a smile in his face and a pat on the back before catching her tired form, slipping her back into her body where she would wake up in the morning.

"I swear, being a soul reaper does nothing but get me in trouble. I should have forfeited my powers when Urahara begged me to." Sakura muttered to herself, she loved saving people and all that jazz but she wasn't a huge fan of the amount of stress and strain it placed in her body in. But she loved fighting more than anything else, so she wouldn't be giving it up any time soon even if it caused her to knock out cold for some time.

So lost her thoughts that she didn't even notice that she had stepped on something rather soft. She scrunched her brows before she dug her foot into the 'ground' more before feeling that she was indeed on top of something. She looking down to find a stuff lion beneath her foot with a gleam in it's eyes as it started straight under her dress. She had heard it, without a doubt, the stuff toy had made a sound of pain.

She quickly snatched up the stuff toy and watched at beads of sweat trickled down it's head, "A mod-soul? A perverted one too."

The stuffed lion's face blushed a prevy red as it's bead eyes stared right at her breast that looked rather prefect in the white summer dress, they were nowhere near as big as Orihime's nor as small as Rukia's. Just perfect to hold onto and-

"You nasty little thing!" Sakura chucked the stuffed lion onto the ground and slammed her heel into the back of it's head.

Oops, he had said that out loud, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"You- you belong to the orange haired soul reaper- Ichigo right?" Sakura picked it back up by the little triangular mane.

"I am the one and only Kon! And I do not belong to him!" It shouted at her. Sakura was taken back by its ferocity of being called Ichigos.

"Right...so Kon was it?"

It nodded it's stuffed head at her, "Yup, and who are you, my lovely lady?"

"I'm Sakura Urahara, nice to meet you Kon." She flashed a soft grin at the mod-soul.

* * *

"So where are you going?" Kon sat in one of the bags in Sakura's hand.

"Nowhere in particular. Just got some shopping done, what are you doing? You should be with Ichigo, if a hollow shows up, he's gonna need you." Sakura glanced down at the mod soul.

"Mphm! As if! If he needed me so much then he wouldn't be treating me like I'm nothing, like I'm not even a comrade, I have no respect in that place!" Kon vented out with heavy antics and all, causing Sakura to giggle with a hand covering her lower face.

"So you two are having a lovers quarrel?" She couldn't help but giggle as Kon was left speechless by her statement.

"As if! I would have better taste than someone who scowls for a living!"

"I see, I see. So you're feeling unappreciated. I understand where you're coming from." Sakura nodded her head.

"Really? Yesterday, when that menos grande appeared you were so cool looking! And when you took Ichigo's spirit energy from his sword- You were just so cool! How could you be unappreciated, you had so much power around you!" Kon looked up at the girl who held her head high and took each step with so much purpose.

"I don't think I was cool per say but thank you, Kon. When I was younger I used to be on a team of two power houses. Both of them were prodigies. I stayed up day and night trying to catch up to them, they had such power and talent that I would never have. One was born and raised in a prominent clan house where he was to be the next head and the other was also from a lower but still rather prominent clan who was raised to protect the clan head they were under. They were both born into houses that trained their young ones to be Soul Reapers. I was a poor street rat that happened to serve one of the prominent clans. I was the personal servant girl of the clan head. There was nothing special about other than my pink hair. I was bed ridden easily when I was younger."

"Then what happened?" Kon asked her as they sat down on a bench, not knowing that they were near the high school where Ichigo and the rest attened.

"It wasn't until there had been an attack on the head of the clan that opened my eyes. She protected me from being killed, she protected everyone from being killed. She was able to take them all down by herself. I was so-so amazed by her powers that when everything was settled I begged for her to train me even if I was only a weak servant girl. She looked at me and laughed. I wanted to cry when she laughed at me. But she patted my head and said she'd never trained a weak runt like me before and it would be a challenge, but she trained me anyways. Soon enough I joined the other students she was also training, that was when everything went a bit downhill for me. I was a servant girl, no one took me seriously not even when I was able to do a Kido spell without an incantation. I was overlooked for the other two because of my title as a servant."

"...Do you hate them?"

"No, I could never really hate them. Dislike? Maybe. To hate something means that at one time you must have loved it dearly, and my love for them has yet to leave me. They helped shape the person I am today, even if it was in a rather harsh way..."

She couldn't help but smile at the memory of a younger her, another younger girl with short black hair and a boy. A bittersweet taste was in her mouth, "You shouldn't hate Ichigo about what he says or does, at the end of the day you're needed by him more than he and you think you are. I promise you, he really needs you."

"..." Kon said nothing as she got up from the bench and began to walk back to the shop. The walk there was silent, but not awkward.

"Don't worry Kon, he'll come around. Besides you can always have someone worse than Ichigo as your partner."

Oh how right she was, when they had reached the store, Kon had been taken by Jinta and Ururu. They both played with him rather roughly and Sakura didn't do much to help either as she just sat and laughed as she ran her fingers through the black cat that nearly scratched Kon's bead eyes out.

"They can always be worse, Kon." Sakura sighed out softly as she watched him run out through the window with tears running down his face, screaming out 'Ichigo' and 'Rukia' as he went.

"Now what are you doing back here, Yoruichi?" Sakura held up the cat with a frown on her face. With Yoruichi being back meant trouble for just about everyone.

* * *

Sakura pulled her long pink tresses into a ponytail that flowed with the breeze as she sat outside with Yoruichi next to her. Her emerald eyes were empty as she thought of reasons why Yoruichi would be here.

"Whatcha doing, Yoruichi, Sakura?" Urahara came out with a bowl of milk and a glass of water in his hand, his voice more cheerful than usual.

"Cut the act, Urahara. You know what's about to happen," The deep male voice of the cat didn't surprise either of them as they listened to whatever it had to say, "The two of them are already here."

"Do you want to talk about this after or before you finish your milk?" Urahara's eyes went hard and his cheerful voice went serious.

Sakura didn't bother to add anything to the conversation as she leaned onto her palms and watched as the sun was slowly setting, '...Byakuya…'

* * *

"I'm going out." Sakura stood from her position on the cement floor and walked away from the two older past soul reaper.

"Where do you think you are going?" Yoruichi looked at the girl with piercing golden eyes.

"I'm not gonna get myself killed, so don't worry okay. If worse comes to worse, I'll take them out if I have to, but I will not allow them to harm the girl because she had given her powers to Ichigo." Sakura didn't look back at them as she walked towards where their spiritual energy was leaking from.

"..Sakura.." Urahara looked at his daughter walk away with her head held high, "...How you've changed…"

"She's gone soft, I see," Yoruichi looked at her retreating back, "Looks like she needs some more training in learning how to stay neutral."

"Mh, I rather have her like this then like us. She won't have as many enemies like we do. Besides I happen to favor the same side as she does." Urahara lowered his hat to cover his small grin.

* * *

Sakura had nearly went into a sprint when she turned the corner, she could feel it. His spiritual energy was weak but it was still there, "Always knew how to stay hidden when you really want to, don't you Byakuya." Sakura muttered to herself.

When Sakura neared where they were fighting she saw Uryu on the ground, covered in more injuries. She had come just in time to see Ichigo challenge the red haired lieutenant, Renji Abarai. She kept up with on who was the current lieutenants and captains of the 13 Court Guard.

She watched from a good distance, her spiritual energy couldn't be traced in the gigia she was in so she didn't have to hide it, "So barbaric." She couldn't help but snort at the man who was so cocky and full of pride, men like him were the ones that Sora liked to destroy the most.

" _Now, now, Sakura. I wouldn't mind cutting him down a few, but even I wouldn't go out there even if I wanted to protect the girl. We can't allow Byakuya or anyone from the Soul Society to know we're alive."_

The soft yet sultry voice of Sora sounded in her mind as clear as day, 'Sora. Just be ready if anything does go down.'

" _You insult me, Sakura. I'm always ready to destroy someone who thinks they're worth more than they actually are."_

Sora's sultry laugh sent a chill down her owners spine, she sometimes forgot just how scary her zanpakuto could be when it came to battle. Sora was like a war god to Sakura. Always ready to fight and shed blood but thought every single step through before making her move.

Her own emerald green eyes were watching in confliction as Ichigo and Renji fought over Rukia. She knew the reason why Ichigo was here, Urahara had come into play by making him take on his soul form, "Who do you think is gonna win?"

"My guess...mmh, we'll see..." Urahara tipped his hat low. Sakura glanced to her side, Urahara leaned against the back to the tree while she gripped the left of the tree.

"How does it feel to see that face after a hundred years?" Urahara smirked as her grip on the tree tightened.

"He looks more snotty than ever. A real noble who can kill a comrade if need be, a shameful man with too much pride." Sakura kept her eyes straight ahead as she watched Renji call out his shikai, Zabimaru.

"This isn't gonna end good for Ichigo.. If Byakuya gets serious or even his lieutenant…"

"Just be ready to collect them when it's all over with, Sakura."

She nodded at his order, her eyes following every movement that was made in the battle. Every jump, breath, pull and strike. Not missing a single step, she even noticed how Byakuya's sterling silver eyes moved in her direction but not seeing her.

They watched as Ichigo was nearly cut down again by Renji but was stopped by Rukia who jumped onto his form and held down on the snake like zanpakuto. Ichigo was on the ground, bleeding out from his shoulder but yet Urahara and Sakura could tell he was only getting stronger.

The orange haired boy took his zanpakuto again and without even knowing it, unleashed a huge wave of spiritual energy. Even Urahara raised a brow in amusement, while Sakura's breath hitched ever so slightly. This boy was surprising her by the second. Everything he did was so powerful and he didn't even know. He had so much power in him, yet-yet he was just a substitute...but was he really?

"He's no substitute..is he…"

"He's nothing but a substitute, no need to look into something so simple, Sakura."

"His name, what was his name again."

"Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Kurosaki… simple substitute my ass! How could you hide something like this from me..!" Sakura turned her body to the hat and clogged clad man with rage in her eyes. She raised her fist and thoroughly made contact with the shoulder of the man who was her father.

"Now, now, Sakura!" He tried to stop her rage but was only met with glaring eyes.

"We'll deal with this when we get home, you too, Yoruichi." Her voice was clean and cut that left no room for argument.

'Sakura..sometimes you're more scary than any hollow out there~!' Urahara thought as he tried to hide how much pain he was in by her punch, she had a killer hit and with her natural enhanced strength. He could tell it was already bruising.

'He's being overpowered...that substitute is overpowering a lieutenant!' Sakura watched in amazement as Ichigo easily overpowered the red haired man, though she could tell it wasn't gonna last long. Her prediction was right on the mark, just as Ichigo was about to end it all his sword was cut clean off.

A little more than half of the gigantic sword was cleaning cut off without a single sound, "Byakuya…!" Sakura hissed out as she saw the captain still in the same place as before but now had other half of the sword in his hand. He made a simple movement of just walking past Ichigo, and yet the boy was now falling to the ground with blood spurting out of his body.

Rukia cried out for him to stop but was cut off by her elder brother. Even Renji was amazed by his captain. He probably barely saw the attack himself.

Rukia ran and cried out to Ichigo. Byakuya stood above the body, they were obviously talking about something deep, seeing as how Rukia was crying out and looked ready to give up her life. But they were all caught by surprise when Ichigo grabbed onto the bottom of Byakuya's kimono.

Rukia sawing what would happen, charged toward where he gripped onto her brother's pants and kicked his hand off. She spoke to him with her eyes casted down and glossed over by unshed tears. Ichigo begged her to stay but Rukia kept on with her words, calling him nothing more than a mere human.

Rain began to pour down and Sakura didn't know if it was rain or tears that fell down her face. She watched as the redhead opened a senkaimon and closed her eyes shut, she couldn't stand to see his back retreat, it was just too much like that night...

"Sakura…"

"I know," She steeled her emotions and walked out from under the tree and towards Ichigo's fallen form. Urahara walked next to her with an umbrella shielding them from the rain, "He's going to black out soon."

Sakura knelt down above Ichigo, her face as soft as ever and her eyes casted down as she looked at him with sorrow. She was met with warm brown eyes, just like the child from back then.

He kept eye contact for as long as he could, staring into those sorrow filled emerald eyes of the same pink haired girl that had saved him yesterday, "Wh-who are y-"

"Take this, I'll pick him up and we'll go back to the house." Urahara shifted the umbrella over to her and picked up the fallen boy.

"What about the quincy boy?"

"I'll take care of him here."

"..."

* * *

"You shouldn't strain your body like that, we were barely able to patch you up before you died."

Ichigo looked up to see a pink haired girl in a light blue dress, her hair pinned up and her feet bare of foot wear.

"If you keep moving like that, you'll die." Urahara stepped out from behind the girl.

"Mr. Hat and Clogs, I take it that this is your house...Did you save me?" Ichigo gripped in shoulder in slight pain.

"Hm, it seems to me by the underlying of your tone that you almost sound like you wanted to be left to die." Urahara moved closer to the boy.

"...what about Uryu? I remember he was there too."

"We treated him at the sight, but he left right after. I asked him to stay and rest at my house but he declined and walked away. He was worried about you." Urahara looked up towards Sakura, who nodded her head left the room to go fetch a bowl of warm water.

"Uryu was worried? No way." The thought of the quincy worried about him, almost made Ichigo snort.

"He lost a lot of blood but even then you were worse off. After we treated him, he left saying he was fine. Saying how you are the only one able to save Rukia."

"Only me? What the hell can I do? Can't you understand she went back to the Soul Society! There's no way we can get her back! It's can't be done!" Ichigo clenched his eyes shut in rage. The memories of what had happened before he passed out brought nothing but angry to him.

"Do you really think that? There's a way into the Soul Society.."

"There is-! Tell me then!" Ichigo leaped from the futon.

"Under one condition, you stay here and let me train you, and teach you how to fight properly for the next 10 days." Urahara held up one finger to show he only wanted one thing.

"10 days! I don't have that amount of time! We need to get Rukia back as soon as possible! Rukia is gone and she could be executed at any time-!"

"Why don't you understand," Urahara raised his walking stick and slammed Ichigo down onto the futon with it, "If you go now, you'll die. You think you can beat them? You think you're strong enough? I et you fight them so you could understand the difference. Learning first hand would be easier for you than just telling you. The power you have now, you won't be able to do much once you get into the Soul Society. Right now you're weak and anytime someone weak tries to enter enemy territory- you're asking for suicide."

The look in Urahara's eyes were dead serious, there was no more playful tone or glint; they were cold, "If you get yourself killed, there'll be no one to blame. The Soul Society has a one month waiting period before an execution, usually they respect the rules. Let's hope they'll do the same for Rukia."

"'Let's hope so?'!" Ichigo raised his body up on his elbows to look at Urahara.

"That gives me about 10 days to torture you, 7 days to open the gate to the Soul Society, and then we'll have 13 days to get the job done. So we got lots of time."

"Will I become strong enough, in 10 days.."

"Yes, as long as you truly wish to save her from the bottom of your heart. Your will needs to be as strong as steel. You need to get rid of all self doubt." Urahara mockingly bowed to him.

"I don't really have a choice do I?" Ichigo scratched the back of his head. Urahara couldn't help but smirk at his observation.

* * *

By the time Sakura had made it back with the warm bowl of water and warping to change Ichigo, she could tell something intense had happened, "Oh, did you guys have some fun without me?"

"Nothing to worry about, dearest daughter~ Me and Yoruichi are just about to leave. Tell me when you're done here." Urahara waved goodbye and left with the black cat following behind him.

Sakura closed the door and sighed out, "I'm sorry about anything he might have done to..well scare you. He can be rather fearful when he's serious about something."

She knelt down next to Ichigo and began to dip a towel in the bowl of water.

"Yeah, no worries. So who are you by the say?" Ichigo asked with a forced smile.

"I'm Sakura Urahara. Nice to formally meet you again Ichigo Kurosaki." Her smile was so familiar to him. He couldn't help but just blurt it out.

"Have we met before. Before you saved me the other day."

"Mh, who knows? Now please sit straight up, I need to change your warping so they don't get infected." Sakura laughed softly at his comment, there was no doubt in her mind that this boy was the one from her younger years; her first human friend.

Ichigo blushed harshly when her cold fingers touched his bare chest, she delicately unwrapped his old ones, whipped the dried blood and wrapped new ones.

"Never had a girl touch you like this before?" Sakura smirked as he blushed more.

"I-um-" Ichigo blushed even more as she laughed at him.

"No need to worry. A year or two more and you'll have girls flocking at your side. A good build for a 15 year old if I must so say." With a hard pat on the back, she stood with the bowl in her hand that now had blood soak wrappings in it.

"Can I ask a question..?"

"Mh?" Sakura turned around and saw the boy clench and unclench his fist.

"You're a soul reaper right?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Why do you ask?" Sakura frowned at the question.

"Then you must have the name of your zanpakuto right? How-how do I know what it's name is?"

Sakura stared at the boy a little longer before a quirk of her lip raised, "All in due time, kid. Your zanpakuto is part of you, it's a part of your soul. You'll learn the name soon enough."

"How do you know that?" Ichigo's brown eyes turned to look straight into her.

"Because I asked the same question. Now get some sleep, Ichigo Kurosaki. You're gonna need it for tomorrow." With a smile as a small bow of her head, she left the young boy to think about her words.

"And the student becomes a master."

Sakura rolled her eyes at the cat perched on it's legs, "Shut up, Yoruichi. I simply gave him the advice he needed that I was once given."

"Mhm, such a tease Sakura." Yoruichi let out a laugh as the pink haired girl couldn't help but smile just a little with another roll of her eyes.

"Shush now, Yoruichi. If the old man hears you say something like that, I won't ever be able to even look at another guy." Sakura joked with the cat, laughing at the thought of just how protective her father could be with things such as attraction for the other gender.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Blink**_

"You know old man, you're gonna get him killed." Sakura mused from her spot next to her father.

"What ever do you mean?" Urahara flapped the fan towards his face, trying rather poorly to hide his grin.

"I trained Ururu myself. Her speed and strength isn't something Ichigo can take on right now, my prized student if I do say so myself." Sakura crossed her arms under her bust. Her wounds had healed from the menos grande battle, her wrapping were gone. Her person was dressed in a black no sleeve turtleneck with slits running down the sides from right under her bust. For bottoms she wore grey leggings that stopped mid thigh, her feet covered in black ballerina shoes that wrapped her anlkes.

"Don't worry so much, Sak. He'll live and when he does some out of this battle alive, I'll put him right back into the death situation." Urahara laughed at his musing.

"You have some weird sense of humor." Sakura elbowed him in the side, her left eye twitching.

"I don't understand what you're trying to do. He's just a normal soul, I know you want to restore the energy he lost but-"

"Like I said, don't worry. I got this, when have I ever been wrong."

She rolled her eyes as they watched Ichigo run around, with his soul chain following right with him ,and try to avoid Urury's hits. She was fast, but Ichigo was just barely faster.

"Hat and clogs! How do I put this on!" Ichigo called out to Urahara.

"You have to strap it on!" Urahara made a motion of putting something on his forehead.

"Like this?!" Ichigo did as he was motioned to with much struggle too.

"That's right. Now yell as loud as you can, "Amazing Headband of Justice in place, Amazing Armor of Justice protect me now." Go on say it!" Urahara yelled out to the poor boy.

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at her father, he was messing around with him. There was no way Ichigo was actually gonna fall for such a stupid-

"The amazing headband of what-?!" Ichigo was trying to remember what had been said but was cut off by Ururu shooting towards him.

"Interesting how the fear of imminent death can change one's mind." Urahara commented.

"All right, I'll say it! Here goes nothing, Amazing Headband of Justice in place. Amazing Armor of Justice protect me now!" Ichigo shouted in, fully believing that it would help him.

"Well what do you know, he actually said it." Sakura couldn't help but laugh at the boy's shouting of something so stupid yet hilarious.

Ichigo stopped in his place and glared over to where they all stood, "You're gonna pay for this!"

"Look out behind you." Urahara warned him.

"Armor of protection my ass!"

Ichigo just kept running until he suddenly stopped, a thought coming to mind. If he was able to outrun her, than that meant his speed and strength was coming back. He turned towards Ururu, surprising everyone as he didn't try to run anymore. He stood until Ururu was kept running at him, a punch ready to be landed on him. But he dodged it, a smirk on his face. His strength was coming back!

He left the defense and took offense, punching at Ururu who dodged every single one. She had to fall back as he proceeded forward at her. It was obvious he wasn't trying to harm her but he seemed to accidentally land a hit on her.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, Ururu's cheek was bleeding from a cut. But she said nothing as Ururu went into straight killing mode. The younger girl's eyes went wide tears forming in the corners, her body in shock. She had completely forgot it was only a practice match.

Her small form used Ichigo's body for leverage. Her foot went far back and landed a clean hit on Ichigo's face. Her kick was so strong that it sent him flying back into one of the boulders in the underground training room.

As the dust cleared from her kick, it was revealed that Sakura had grabbed Ururu's ankle and Tessai had protected Ichigo from slamming into the boulder.

"Give me one more crack at her, please!" Ichigo steeled his resolves and looked at Urahara.

"Congratulations, I pronounce lesson one cleared."

Ichigo looked at the man in confusion, "What are you talking about? She kicked my ass just now, I lost."

"I never said anything about you having to win the fight in order to clear the lesson, did I?"

"I thought-"

Before he could finish his incorrect thought, Sakura interrupted him, "Ichigo, Ururu has the strength to counter even a full fledged Soul Reaper. A mere human would never stand a chance of defeating her outright. She may look like a harmless little girl but when under certain circumstances she could take down someone easily."

Sakura laid her hand on top of Ururu's mushroom helmet and gave a smile to the younger girl, "You did good, Ururu."

The pigtailed girl smiled up at the pinkette, "Thank you Miss Sakura."

"I still don't understand, what was the point in all this then?" Ichigo's eyes switched from Urahara to Sakura and then back.

"The point was to see if you could dodge Ururu's first attack. You can breath better now can't you?" Sakura crossed her arms under her bust again.

"Now that you mentioned it, I can."

"That means you've gained your spiritual energy back. When the soul is in danger of being destroyed, spirit energy increases a lot faster when that happens. We just needed to know if you were able to raise yours fast enough to dodge that punch." Urahara finished explaining.

"And if I hadn't succeeded?"

"Then you would've died."

"Why didn't you tell me this eariler!"

"And where's the fun in that? Besides I had a lot of faith in you."

"Now let's celebrate you passing the the first lesson." Urahara smirked as Ichigo jumped back, Tessai had just cut his soul chain by a big chunk too.

"I feel like I'm dying!"

"That's because you are. You see once the chain of fate has been severed, you can't go back to your physical body. Death comes quickly." Urahara slapped his fan closed as he stared down at Ichigo who was being sat on by Tessai.

"Do you have to be so casual about it?" Ichigo bit out.

"That's not even the worse of it. Your chain will begin the encroachment where it was severed. When the end reached your chest, you will become a Hollow, and that will be the end of you."

"What do I have to do?"

"If you don't want to become a Hollow, you must become a Soul Reaper!"

"What!"

"You'll find that once you have cleared lesson two, you will regain the powers of a Soul Reaper. Of course which path you choose is up to you." Urahara let out a cold laugh.

Ichigo smirked up at Urahara, "Hah! You don't have to ask me that!"

"Alright let's get this party started. Go!" Urahara pointed out and suddenly a hole appeared underneath Ichigo and Tessai. Ichigo yelled out in fear.

"You are really messed up, old man." Sakura whistled out at the hole Ururu dug.

"What can I say, I try my best," Urahara grinned at her and then turned back to down the hole, "Now, Ichigo all you have to do is climb up the shaft, otherwise known as the Shatter Shaft, that's all there is to this lesson."

"Yeah, that'll work in this condition!" Ichigo yelled out. He had been bounded by a kido spell, the reason why Tessai was down there as well. He had to keep Ichigo bound for however long he was down there for.

"You have 72 hours to come back up here as a Soul Reaper, don't waste your time either!" Sakura shouted down as him. She understood what her father was trying to do now, but even then…

"What are you talking abou-" Ichigo looked at his chain to find that it was eating itself, he screamed out in fear. The outcome finally hitting him.

"If you can't get back up here in those 72 hours, I'll be forced to kill you." Sakura smirked out as Ichigo looked up at her in fear.

* * *

"How long do you think it'll take him to get back up here?" Sakura mused as she watched him.

"I say 5 hours!" Jinta betted.

"No way, more like 12." Ururu shook her head at Jinta.

"I'll beat all my money he won't make it back! What about you Sakura?" Urahara laughed.

"Mph, I say he'll take all of the hour."

"You bastards! You intend to kill me!" Ichigo yelled up to them.

"Yup, only when you've given up." Sakura leaned over the hole. Ichigo cursed at them all.

Sakura laughed out as Jinta and Ururu began to spit down at him after giving him some warning about how if he began to feel hunger, it was a bad sign.

"You brats stop spitting on me!"

Sakura sat there, on the edge of the hole for over 70 hours, "Jinta."

"Yeah, Sakura?" The red haired boy looked over at the girl.

"Go get some food and bring it down to him, also inform him of how long it's been."

"Whatever you say Boss Lady." Jinta stood up and went to fetch some food.

"He's gonna be turning soon, Urahara," Sakura commented nonchalantly. Her feet were swinging as she sat on the edge, "And he hasn't made much progress either."

"..." Urahara said nothing to his daughter as he finished yet another apple.

Soon enough, Jinta had returned with a plate of fruits in his hand and jumped into the hole effortlessly. Sakura watched their interaction, overhearing what they were talking about. Her trained eye kept on his chains and widen just a bit as the chains began to eat at each other, "You might want to watch this part."

Ururu, Urahara and Jinta all looked down into the hole to see Ichigo screaming at the chains. In a matter of seconds the links had eaten themselves and burst into nothing, a black hole was now in his chest.

"Looks like he'll become a Hollow anyway. I have to save him now." Ururu punched out softly.

"Don't worry, Ururu. Just wait a little longer, okay." Sakura touched Ururu head, her eyes not moving off of Ichigo.

"What do you mean, Sakura?"

"He's transformation isn't right, his mask is being formed first. That means he's resisting. He still has a chance at being a Soul Reaper," Sakura leaned onto her palm, "Right now- right now he's having an internal battle. He's look for it right now. I can hear it. He's talking to his zanpakuto."

"Sakura…" Urahara looked down at the girl, his eyes covered by the shadow of his hat.

They watched as the white mask was almost complete, his screams even louder than before. Tessai then released his fingers and made a new one, he was planning to kill him.

"Hey if you do that much Tessai, he'll die!" Jinta warned the man.

"Final incantation: Fatal Seal!" A steel box dropped from the sky and landed right on top of Ichigo.

A burst of bright yellow flew from inside the shaft and out, bouncing around the underground training area. Jinta and Ururu were blocked Urahara, so they weren't hurt but Sakura stood still, already in her Soul Reaper form. Her sword drawn and her human body over by Urahara.

She narrowed her eyes as she watched the dust open to reveal Ichigo. A now Hollowed Ichigo with a mask on his face, yet he was still dressed as a Soul Reaper, "A shihakusho...and a mask?"

He reached for his sword, only to show that there was no actual sword, only a hilt. Jinta and Ururu ready in a fighting stance. He took the hilt and smashed the Hollow mask. Only a piece was left on the side of his head.

"And you thought I would die!" Ichigo yelled out to them, a tick mark on his face as he pointed his broken sword at Urahara, "I swore to myself, that when I made it out of there, you would be the first one I'd kill!"

Sakura couldn't help but laugh, along with the others, "With all that spirit we should be able to go right into the third lesson."

"Oh and what is it?" Ichigo's tick mark became more visible as he turned to the girl.

"You have to fight him." Sakura pointed over to Urahara.

"Well, that makes it easier." Ichigo glared over at the man.

"All you have to do is knock his hat off and you pass. This test doesn't have a time limit, so take however long you need to." Sakura smiled at him.

"5 minutes. All I'll need to 5 minutes." Ichigo smirked at them.

Sakura was stumped by his bold act but only laughed, "If you say so."

The following events were nothing but a cat and mouse game between her father and the new Soul Reaper. Urahara had taken out his sword from his cane.

" _He probably thinks his sword is just a normal sword and not a zanpakuto, and so he won't be able to cut him down. Stupid little boy. Urahara could kill him if he really wanted to."_

Sora snorted out to Sakura, 'He has no fear for a human. I wonder why father keeps working on him so hard, I don't see much in him, yet.'

" _You don't care for him then? You did know him as a child."_ Sora quirked her brow at her owner's words.

'I care, I just don't understand. Father has a lot of trust and faith in him. I understand who his father and mother is, but even then…'

" _Just keep watching, Sakura."_

And so she did and she was not disappointed. Her mouth was wide in amazement, he did it! He had learned the name of his sword.

"Zangetsu!"

" _Moon cutting. How unique of a zanpakuto."_

'Very unique. This boy is special, Sora. I can feel it.'

Her zanpakuto did not comment any further on the fight. A blue light shined from Ichigo as his little stump of a sword was no longer just a stump, it was now a huge sword. Like his old one but more..raw.

"I hope you're able to avoid this." Ichigo calmly said.

"What do you mean?" Urahara raised a brow. His hat revealed his eyes.

"Because I can't control it!" Ichigo roared out as he swung his sword. The simple swing of his sword had caused a huge scar in the land, just like Sakura had when she released his power.

Urahara was barely able to avoid the strike with his Blood Mist Shield.

"You are truly one scary kid, Ichigo Kurosaki." Urahara whistled as he looked towards Ichigo, who had passed out.

"You got one scary student, dad." Sakura mumbled next to him. He looked at his daughter with surprise, she never called him dad, not even father when she was talking to him. It was usually old man or Urahara.

"...I know, Sakura. I hope what I've taught him will help him not get killed too soon."

"You taught me, and look how it turned out. I'm still alive. Besides, each step he takes I'll be right next to him to guard him."

"Huh?! Don't tell me you're interested in that good for nothing punk! I swear I'll kill him if he did anything to you last night!" Urahara sprinted to the knocked out boy, taking his shoulder and shaking him, "Hey! You brat! Did you deflower my precious princess?!"

"OLD MAN!" Sakura yanked him by the collar of his jacket and threw him across the training grounds, "When I said that I meant it as a friend! When we were younger he guarded me and now I'm doing the same for him!"

"When you were younger? You've met him before?"

"Yeah, it's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you another day." Sakura looked off towards the sleeping boy and smiled at the memories of when he would protect her from the kids at the playground that would make fun of her pink hair.

* * *

Sakura stood there, already in her soul reaper form. Her hair tied into two low pigtails behind her. Leaning against the door to the shop her form as laxed as ever. One by one, everyone showed up; Chad, Ichigo, Uryu and lastly Orihime. It had been around 5-6 days since the events of Ichigo's training.

"What the hell is going on here?" Ichigo glanced at one to another. What were his friends doing here? He had understood Sakura, but even then he had no clue why she was in her Soul Reaper form.

"They're here to help you get Rukia back. While you were training with Urahara, these three were doing their own training too. To prepare for this mission to be exact."

Ichigo turned to find a talking cat in Orihime's arm, "Why is a cat talking to me?!"

"Now hurry, everyone get inside. We have some things we can't talk about outside." Urahara opened the door to the shop. One by one every stepped in and went into the training grounds where Urahara would reveal to way they would get into the Soul Society.

Sakura was the last to leave of the bunch. She watched as the moon was in full tonight, "Do you think what I'm about to do is right, Sora?"

" _...No, I don't. I think you're about to get yourself killed by going back to that place. You're gonna see Byakuya, Shuhei, Rangiku, all of them. The people you left to think you were dead and yet you're about to show them otherwise. But then again, that's your thing; always showing people you are not what they expect."_

This was one of the few rare moments where Sakura would talk to Sora physically instead of mentally talking to her, "What can I say, I like to show people I'm more than just some captain's daughter."

With a grin on her face, Sakura turned to walk into the shop. In her mind she could see her zanpakuto's cherry lips break into a grin, " _I'll be right there to protect you, Sakura the Queen of Fists."_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Blink**_

Urahara turned to look at the group of 3 human teenagers, 2 soul reapers and a cat, "Alright listen up. This gate has a layer of Reishihenkanki Spirit-particle Conversion Machine on top of a normal Senkaimon."

Ichigo looked at the man with a confused look, "Spirit-Particle...conversion?"

"I'll explain. As you already know, the Soul Society is a world of spirits. It's impossible to enter that world unless you have the form of a spirit. Right now only 2 of you can enter, Sakura and Ichigo because they're both Soul Reapers. The conversion machine will convert you into spirits."

"Even without extracting our spirits by going through this gate, we'll still be able to get through?" Uryu finished.

"Correct. You will be able to enter the Soul Society like that."

"Alright we understand, let's get going-"

Ichigo was cut off from his sentence as Urahara stabbed him in the side with his cane, "However! The time that we have to open the gate and connect it to the Soul Society is...four minutes."

"Is that enough time?!"

"Normally, no. It's impossible."

"What?!"

"In fact the whole scheme is a little shaky. Four minutes was all I can give you. After that, if you haven't crossed over yet will be trapped forever between the Soul Society and this world." Urahara finished explaining the layout of the machine.

"H-how will we ever make it?" Orihime choked out, the thought of being trapped forever in there scarred her.

"Go forward. Remember what I told you about the connection of the heart and soul, you must have no doubt, no fear and the will to move on forward. Do not think of the ones you are leaving behind. Me and Sakura will be your guides to getting to the other side. Sakura will be acting as the leader for this mission and I will be coming along to assist." Yoruichi stood in front of them, showing no worry in the plan and sketchy machine.

"If you want to back out, then leave right now. We do not have the time to waste on someone who will wimp out, this is a matter of life or death. If you're able to move on forward and never look back, only then can you come." Sakura looked at each and everyone one that stood before her. A quincy, a soul reaper, a human girl with the power to reject time, and a human boy whose body was his armor. Staring each one down and sizing them up.

"We know that already or we wouldn't still be here! Quiet with all the yapping and let's go." Ichigo harden his eyes at the female Soul Reaper, who only smirked back at him.

"Oh and you understand that if you fail, you will never be able to return. Possibly even be dead?"

"Then all I need to do is win, right?"

"Exactly." Sakura grinned at the boy before turning back to face the grey crushed together gate.

"So is everybody ready? As soon as it opens, run. Good luck." Urahara nodded towards the boy who nodded back.

In a flash the gate was open and everyone was gone, "We're all counting on you, Ichigo."

Urahara made a motion to touch the gate but was electrocuted, 'You better come back alive, Sakura. That's one thing I'll make sure happens.'

* * *

"Okay, just keep ahead and run for your lives. It's not hard once you realise that!" Sakura shouted out as she lead the rest of them with Yoruichi right next to her.

"Wait! What's that sound!" Ichigo yelled out as they turned to see a huge purple blob coming after them.

"Shit! That's the cleaner! It comes through every 7 days to clean up this place, we just happen to be coming through on this day!" Sakura cursed out.

They had been running for nearly a minute and the whole thing was trying to collapse on them and take them out. So far they had been good about it until Uryu's stupid cape got caught.

"I knew your stupid outfit was gonna get us in trouble sooner or later!" Ichigo yelled out as he readied his zanpakuto to cut down the thing that had grabbed the quincy's cape.

"Ichigo! Don't! The current entangles the spiritual body, if you use your zanpakuto, you'll get caught too!" Yoruichi yelled out to the boy. He looked conflicted but was met with shock when Chad ripped the quincy's cape right off and proceeded to flip the boy onto his shoulder.

"Let's go we don't have time!" Sakura shouted out at them. The Cleaner was getting closer to them, "Hurry up we're almost there!"

"We're not gonna make it!' Uryu yelled out. He was facing right at the Cleaner.

Orihime looked backed only to starting running backwards, "Hinagiku! Baigon! Lily! Santen Kesshun! I reject!"

Two of her flower like hair pin flew from their place and made a triangular shield in front of her, allowing more time for the rest of the group to have more time to get out.

The moment the Cleaner hit the shield made from Orihime's shield a bright golden orange light engulfed the tunnel followed by an explosion.

"Ahh!"

Everyone screamed out as the explosion acted as a leverage to push them out before the gate would close.

"YOU-!" Sakura screamed out, her face red in angry. They had just been spit out by the gate forcing all of them out and to harshly land on the ground. Sakura had been saved by barely landing on her feet in a crouching stance, "What the hell was that! You could have killed us! That thing sucks spirit energy you know that right! If that little act of yours failed we'd be dead!"

Sakura glared at the girl.

"She's right! We were lucky!" Yoruichi rammed into Orihime's head, as the girl began to pout.

"We're alive aren't we?"

"Barely!" Yoruichi and Sakura screeched at the human girl. The pink haired Soul Reaper huffed out a long sigh as she watched Uryu pull out an extra cape and place it on, saying how he was upset about having to use his extra cape so soon. Meanwhile Ichigo and Chad stood to the side and judge the overly prepared boy.

"Be glad the Cleaner only touched the outer layer of the shield! Had it touched any of the Six Petals itself, you'd be dead now!" Yoruichi lectured the girl who stopped crying.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Lighten up, will you? How was she supposed to know that? Besides it not been for her quick thinking, we wouldn't had made it through in the first place. " Ichigo looked down at Yoruichi and over at Sakura who was still glaring at the girl.

"I don't think you understand how serious this actually is! Her little stunt there probably alerted the Court Guards that we're here. This makes everything harder and more dangerous from now on. From here on out, do not, under any circumstance do anything that I have not okayed." Sakura glared over at the orange haired Soul Reaper. They were acting as though this was nothing to fret about! She could care less about them not knowing about the Soul Society and how things worked, no she cared about them knowing just what they were up against.

Ichigo had gone head to head with the captain and lieutenant of Squad 6 and had been stripped of his Soul Reaper powers by them, yet he acted so nonchalant about it.

She was acting as captain for this rescue mission and she'd be damned before let someone's stupid act cost them their life. But for now she would put it in the past, after all they were alive, "Right now we are in the Rukon District, also known as the Drifting Spirit Town. This is where souls first live upon coming to the Soul Society, and is on the perimeter of the Seireitei where Soul Reapers Live."

"It's the poorest place in Soul Society, but also the one with the greatest freedom and had the largest population of souls in Soul Society." Yoruichi finished Sakura explanation.

Everyone looked around the place with confusion. It was until Uryu voiced the confusion, "If that's so, then why is it so quiet?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out too. Yoruichi?" Sakura looked down at the cat.

The place was rather empty of any souls, literally. The sky was clear and bright blue, the buildings were traditional Japanese styling and looked like something from Edo Japan.

Off to the side was a completely different looking area; white building white yellow/golden roofs. The roofs were the only thing you could see as there was a large and tall wall blocking off the place.

"Hey look over there. Why do they look so different from everywhere else?" Ichigo questioned.

Yoruichi turned to see what ichigo was talking about and only narrowed it's golden eyes, "Just forget about that."

"I know. I bet that's the Seirei- what ever you mentioned where all the Soul Reapers live!" Ichigo looked rather smug at his conclusion and made a sprint towards the area.

Yoruichi looked dumbfounded when the boy just ran off, even after hearing how he was just warned by not only Sakura but her too.

"Alright, you Soul Reapers! Here I come!"

"Ichigo! You can't run up to the gate like that- You'll get killed!" Sakura pivoted around to see a flash of orange just run straight towards the gate.

Ichigo turned to look at the female Soul reaper with confusion, "Huh?"

He was only stopped when Sakura had flash stepped to push him away from almost being crushed by the falling panels that acted as a wall around the place, "Didn't I just say *pant* not to DO ANYTHING I DIDN'T OKAY?!"

Sakura glared down at the poor boy who was coughing from all of the dust that blew up from the panels dropping, "Kid, can you for just a second, listen to me without trying to get yourself killed."

Ichigo looked up at the girl and nodded wordlessly at her plea.

"This is not a game. We are in enemy territory, and going in without a plan is suicide. We can't be making all the noise in the world around here without getting killed a time or two. This is serious, I know you want to save that Soul Reaper girl, but you need to save yourself first. We don't have much time to do that, so making all this noise and getting us caught will definitely get that girl killed. Do you understand?" Sakura's once hard and angry voice softened with a sigh, her rage sometimes got the best of her and costed her, a lot more than she'd like to give.

Before Ichigo could give out his answer a deep male voice interrupted, "Well, well. It's been a long time since anyone tried to pass through the Spirit Gates without a permit pass. And I don't get many guest these days. So welcome to you, little man and little woman."

Ichigo gasped at the one who spoke. A man who looked like an ape with one arm plated by armor. His Soul Reaper kimono was bare of one shoulder and showed off his well built body. He wore a red cap and had a beard tied into two separate pigtails. The ape like man chuckled at the thought of them trying to get pass. It was going to be a fun day for him he decided.

* * *

On the inside of the gate was a crowd of Soul Reapers, all who didn't looked to worry about the intruders.

"So the intruders are on the other side?" One man asked.

"Yeah, there's no need to worry though. Cause on the other side of the Hakuto Gate, they'll have to deal with….Jidanbo." The Soul Reaper with a tattoo on his face only smirked at the name of the guard. There was no way they were gonna get through with him guarding.

* * *

A loud crash could be heard from the outside of the gate as the ape man slammed his battle like axe, trying to cut down Sakura and Ichigo. The guardian laughed out in pity, "Whenever you are ready, give it all you've got. And good luck."

Chad, Orihime, Uryu and Yoruichi watched from a good distance as the ape man gave a mirthful grin at the pink and orange haired Soul Reapers.

"What is he? He's too big to be a human..?" Uryu gulped down at the mere size of the man.

"Is name is Jidanbo. He was chosen from some of the Soul Society's best warrior's. His task is to guard the Hakuto Gate. One of four entrances that make up the Spirit Gate." Yoruichi took a small step back to allow herself to get a better look at what was about to go down.

"If we intend to get through this gate, it looks like we have no choice but to defeat him."

"Yes. But that will not be an easy task, I'm afraid. In the 300 years Jidanbo has served at this post, countless invaders have tried, but not a single one has ever broken through the Hakuto Gate. Jidanbo has become a legend of power and strength."

"How in the world are we supposed to defeat somebody like that?"

"That's where your intelligence and creativity come in. The first thing we need to do is have a meeting. Now Ichigo, Sakura-"

Yoruichi turned around to find that Ichigo was already fighting Jidanbo and Sakura was face palming from the side, "Ichigo!"

"Come on Chad! We can't let Ichigo face that thing alone!" Orihime called out to the dark skinned boy who nodded back as they ran over to their friend. Yoruichi's mouth fell lower at how insane they were!

"Yoruichi, I know the old man told me not to get involved in any of Ichigo's fights and all, and I'll stand by that for when every that applies. But can I kill him?" Sakura crouched down next to the cat as they watched the gate keeper slam his battle axe down and scrape it to the side, forcing the concrete up and create a makeshift wall to block off Orihime, Chad and Uryu.

"Not if I get to him first, Sakura. I swear these kids are getting more and more wild." Yoruichi grumbled out.

"But, I'll give it to them, they sure know how to get things done even if it's a in a rather dangerous way." Sakura watched as Ichigo and the gate keeper fought. Ichigo was holding his own rather nicely against the giant.

"Let's see how long they'll last." Sakura snorted as Ichigo proceeded to play what looked like a game with the monkey looking guard.


End file.
